There has been a steadily growing interest in fitness, both for health reasons and for personal development. As the popularity of various physical fitness activities has grown, people have become more interested in achieving specific goals through these activities. For example, some people take up exercise to lose weight, others to participate in a particular type of sport, such as soccer or marathon racing, and still others just to gradually improve their overall physical condition. Correspondingly, a great deal of scientific research has been conducted as to how people may reach these specific goals. For example, some scientific research has indicated that the fastest way for someone to lose fat through exercise is to exercise such that the person's heart rate is maintained within a specific range or “zone” of beats per minute.
This research should ideally allow people of all walks of life to maximize the results obtained from their fitness activities. In practice, however, few people can take advantage of this research. While an athlete may create a schedule of fitness activities or training routine designed to obtain specific results through one or more physical activities, he or she will probably have difficulty following that training routine while actually engaged in those physical activities.
For example, an optimized group of physical activities or “workout” may call for an athlete to run until his or her heart rate is within a desired heart rate zone (that is, a percentage range of his or her maximum heart rate), and then switch to another, less strenuous activity, such as jogging or stretching, after ten minutes. While running, however, that athlete cannot easily determine when his or her heart rate reaches the targeted zone. Even if he or she employs a heart rate monitor to measure his or her heart rate, the athlete must continuously watch the heart rate monitor to ascertain when his or her heart rate reaches the desired zone. The athlete must then initiate a timer to measure how long his or her heart rate remains within the desired zone.
This module requires significant concentration that detracts from the workout itself. Thus, users will commonly not adhere to a training routine, or, alternatively, will not prepare a detailed training routine that maximizes the results of their workout. Accordingly, there is a need for a method and apparatus that will allow a person to create a training routine scheduling each part or step of a workout, determine when the requirements of a particular step have been fulfilled, and then prompt the user to begin the subsequent step of the workout.